Typewriting machine



April 25, 1939. w. F. HELMOND 2,155,989

TYPEWRITING MACHINE Original Filed Deo. 2, 1933 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 L% @l Q: i

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April 25, 1939. w. F. HELMOND TYPEWRITING MACHINE Original Filed Dec. 2, 1933 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Patented Apr. 25, 1939 UNITED STATES PATENT AOFFICE TYPE-WRITIN G MACHINE Original application De cember 2, 1933, Serial No. Divided and this application February 17, 1937, Serial. No. 125,109

6 Claims.

This invention relates to tabulating mechanism. There is shown a series of key-settable tabulating stops mounted in a rack carried by the carriage. A series of key-operated denominational 5 stops, co-operative with the key-set stops on the carriage, are ho'usedin a compact column-like frame, to form a readily attachable unit supported by, and at the rear of, the typewriter framework, said stop-housing frame preferably l extending vertically, in consonance with the desired erect lines of the machine contour. The denominational stops are in the form of vertical blades whose lower ends are detachably connected to denominational key-levers operable to lift said blades. Heretofore, in order that such blades could, by lifting thereof, be made to cooperate with the carriage-carried stops, the latter were disposed above the tops of the blades.

'Ifne present improvements include novel blade- 20 guiding means whereby the denominational-stop blades when they are lifted are at the same time moved forwardly for the purpose of projecting them toward the carriage-carried stops which are disposed forwardly of the upper front edges of the blades, and are therefore co-o-perable with the latter both in upper-case and lower-case positions of the carriage. The denomination-stop blades have the usual close letter-spacing.

I'he novel blade-guiding means include an 30 abutment for upwardly-facing edges presented preferably by the extreme upper ends of the denominational-stop blades, said abutment and edges being arranged at such inclination that when a blade is lifted by the key-lever, the upper 35 end portion of the blade is at the same time forced forwardly intothe path of the set stops on the carriage. The blade-guiding surface of the abutment may be formed by the bottoms of spaced slots in said abutment, said slots effecting the 40 aforesaid close spacing of the blades, and the sides of the slots supporting the blades against the lateral thrust which they receive when arresting the carriage. Thus said slotted abutment acts as a spacing means for the blades, and as a means to force the blades forwardly when they are lifted, and also as a means for supporting the blades against said lateral thrust. A guide, which may be also slotted, is spaced below said blade-endguiding abutment, and keeps the blades articulat- 50 ed with the latter when they are retracted, said lower guide co-operating to force the blades rearwardly when they are retracted.

The aforesaid housing which mounts the denominational-stop blades also mounts a cross- 55 shaft to which is fastened a universal bar opera- (Cl. IS7-178) ble, by the lifting of any one of the blades, for effecting release of the carriage from the escapement devices. Slidable along the cross-shaft, and also rockable thereabout, is a sleeve or yoke having an arm forming a stop-setting finger and another arm directly articulated to another blade which is mounted alongside the denominationstop blades, so that it may be connected at its lower end to a stop-restoring key-lever in the same manner as the denominational blades are 10 connected toI key-levers. The yoke, rockable about said cross-shaft, the additional blade articulated therewith, and. the corresponding keylever form a stop-setting train. The stop-setting nger of the yoke is opposite the front of the fore-and-aft shiftable key-settable stops on the carriage, and the mounting of the yoke on the cross-shaft of the universal bar conduces tol compactness of assembly.

Lengthwise of the universal-bar shaft, the stopsetting yoke is held in normal position by a spring, to the end that should the carriage be released while the stop-setting finger of the yoke is between adjacent stops on the carriage, the yoke and its finger will move along with the carriage to 2 avoid jamming the finger and obstructing its spring-pressed retraction.

Similar to the aforesaid denominational blades is an additional blade liftable by a key-lever and acting as a stop-restorer, said stop-restorer blade being guided at its upper end by the same abutment and lower guide which guide the denominational blades. Thus the stop-restoring key-lever projects the stop-restoring blade forwardly at the same time that the latter is lifted, the forward projecting of the stop-restoring blade serving to restore a key-set stop on the carriage that has been tabulated to the denominational blade of lowest denomination. The stop-restoring blade may also have a cam operative when the blade is held in its operative position by its key to restore all the stops on the carriage by a run of the latter.

This application is a division of my application Serial No. 700,646, filed December 2, 1933, now Patent No. 2,074,333 issued March 23,' 1937. 45

Other features and advantages will hereinafter appear.

In the accompanying drawings,

Figure 1 is a sectional plan View of the rear portion of the tabulating mechanism.

Figure2 is a cross-sectional side elevation of a noiseless typewriter incorporating the novel tabulating mechanism, the section being taken at about the middle of the machine.

Figure 3 is a perspective view of the improved tabulating-stop mechanism.

Figure i is a top plan View, indicating how the tabulating mechanism seen in Figure 3 is modified to act as a one-key cc-lumn-tabulator, Figure 4 also showing the relative arrangement of a stopsetting key-lever, a stop clearing or restoring keylever, and a novel column-tabulating key-bar.

Figure 5 is a top plan View of some of the keysettable stops on the carriage and the relation to the latter of the stop-setting finger, the counterstop blade, and the stop-restoring blade.

The invention is shown as applied to an Underwood noiseless typewriter. A carriage 40 supporting a platen 24 is driven in letter-feed direction by a spring motor 36. The carriage is under control of the usual escapement 4| and is caused to letter-feed the carriage whenever one of the alphabet or numeral keys 2| in the key-board 22 is being operated.

In Figure 2 there is shown a cross-bar or platform 43 upon which rests a bolster 41, which supports the platen-carriage 40 by means of a rockshaft 48, journaled in lugs 49 of said bolster. Arms 60 of said rock-shaft 48 enable the latter, when operated by a case-shift key-train, not shown herein but described in Patent No. 1,661,799, dated March 6, 1928, to Going, to raise and lower a track-bar 5| along which the platencarriage 40 runs.

The bolster 41 extends from side to side of the machine-frame i5, and is guided for fore-andaft adjustment of the platen for the usual purpose of bringing the platen forward or rearward, in accordance with the number of superposed work-sheets positioned around the platen, it being understood that the type-carriers 2D have the limited printing-movement which is characteristic of printing quietly by pressure. Springs |49 press the bolster rearwardly, and fore-and-aft adjustment of the bolster 41 may be effected by the setting of a cam |25, shown and fully described in my original application of December 2, 1933, Serial No. 700,646.

The dog-rocker 66 formed as seen in Figure 3 may be pivoted between ears 69, Figure 2, of the bracket 68. The dog-rocker 66 has a springpressed pivoted holding dog 10 normally in engagement with the escapement-wheel 61, and retractible therefrom to release the carriage for tabulating. The dog-rocker 66 has also a springpressed pivoted stepping dog 1|. The described escapement-devices are, in respect to the design of the individual parts and the relative dispositions of said parts, substantially along the lines of the patent to Going 1,682,330.

From the middle portion of the top of the bolster 41 there extends rearwardly and upwardly a transverse wall 9| joined to rearwardly-turnedside-walls 92 to form a channel 93. The upper part of the transverse wall 9| has a recess 94 to admit a forwardly-reaching tongue, which forms a counter-stop 95, col-operative with marginstops 96 of the carriage 49. Said tongue or stop is bent forwardly from an arm 91, which is seen edgewise, and is only shown in such part in Figure 2 as lto indicate its improved form. The operation of said arm 91 for margin-releasing and key-locking may be effected by means of parts, not shown, but which may be along the lines used in prior machines and described in Patent 1,255,571, to Anderson, dated February 5, 1918.

In order to clear a tabulating-stop rack 98, which is newly disposed on the carriage 40 for the purpose of cooperating with novel tabulating mechanism housed in part within said channel 93, the transverse wall 9| and related side-walls 92, forming said channel, rise in front of said rack 93, and are then offset rearwardly above the rack, as seen in Figure 2, to reach the counterstop 95. The counterstop-arm 91 is therefore bent, as shown, to hug the wall 9| to also pass in front of the stop-rack 98. The stop-rack 93 is supported between side-plates 99 of the carriage 4E), and mounts a series of key-settable tabulating stops |09 which may be arranged on said rack as set forth in my Patent 1,901,162, dated March 14, 1933. The side-walls 92 extend under the stoprack 99 and have flanges |9| to which is attached, by screws |62, a column-like housing |93 which supports parts of said novel tabulating mechanism.

The tabulating mechanism includes a row of denominational keys |66 on upright stems |6| at the front ends of key-levers |62, operable to selectively bring upstanding denominational stopblades |63 into co-operation with the rear ends of the key-set stops |96 of the carriage. The keylevers |62 converge rearwardly, so that their rear ends |64 underlie the lower ends |65 of said blades |63, said rear lever-ends |64 and lower blade-ends |65- being kept in alignment by being guided in slots |66 of the aforesaid housing |03, in which said blades |63 are mounted. The keylevers |62 swing about a fulcrum-rod |68 mounted on arms |58 of the framework.

In order that the lifting of any denominational blade may be translated into forward displacement of its upper front edge |61 into the path of a key-set stop |69, and in order that the blade-portions forming said edges |61' may be firmly supported at the carriage-impact, and, further, in order that the carriage-arresting portions of the blades may have the comparatively close letter or denominational spacing, the following construction may be provided.

Near its lower end each blade has a slot |69 whose sides slidably t a transverse rod |10 xed in the housing |93. By having the slots |69 inclined, as shown, the lifting of any blade |63 forces its lower end forwardly in consonance with the desired forward displacement of the carriage-arresting edge |61 at the top of the blade which is guided as follows.

The housing |93 has a cap-plate |1| having slots |12 denominationally spaced. The seats of said cap-plate slots |12 and top edges |13 of the blades are preferably straight and are inclined as shown, so that when a blade is lifted, it is also forced forwardly by the seat of its cap-plate slot |12, to bring its carriage-arresting edge |61 into the path of the carriage-stop |90. Spaced from the top-plate |1| is an additional blade-guide-l14 fastened to the housing |63 by screws |15 and having slots |16, the bottoms of which co-operate with edges |11 of the blades to keep the top edges |13 Within the cap-plate slots |12, when the blades |63 are dropped upon release of the keylevers |62. The cap-plate 11| and the additional guide |14- are relatively disposed as shown, and are respectively above and below the carriagestops |00, whereby the sides of the slots |12 and |16 are best enabled to support the blades against the carriage-impact during tabulating. Said carriage-arresting-blade edges |61 are inclined in the direction of the case-shift to be operative in the upper-case as well as in the lower-case position of the carriage 40.

In addition to, and similar to, the denominational blades |03, there is an upstanding blade |18, also having at its lower end an inclined slot |60 and guided at its upper end by an additional slot |12 in the cap-plate |1| and by an additional slot |16 in the lower guide |14. Said additional blade is operative by a key-lever |10 similar to the tabulating-key levers |02 and having a key |80, said additional blade |13 and key-lever |18 being operative to restore any of the key-set tabulating stops on the carriage when the stop to be restored has been tabulated to the denominational blade of lowest denomination, the additional blade |18 therefore adjoining' said lowest denominational blade |63, as indicated in Figure 3.

A novel train for setting the carriage-stops |00 individually includes a key-lever |8|, similar to the tabulating-key levers |02. Operation of said stop-setting key-lever |8| lifts a blade |82 guided at its lower end in the housing |03 and by the rod similarly to the other blades |53, |10. Instead of reaching upwardly to the same extent as said other blades, the blade |82 has a forwardly-extending arm |83 articulated by means of a pin |00 to the end of an arm |85 forming part of a yoke |80 which may be formed as indicated in Figure 3, and is rotatable upon a crossshaft |81, journaled in the blade-housing |03. Said yoke |85 also has an arm |80 which presents a finger |89 opposite the stop-restoring edge of the blade |18, said restoring edge being at the rear side of the stops |00, and the stop-setting finger |89 being at the front of said stops |00 as shown in Figure 5. It will be seen now that operation of the key-lever |8| swings the finger |89 to set any stop |00 that, by positioning the carriage, has been brought opposite said finger.

Besides being rotatable upon the shaft |81, the yoke |86 is also movable lengthwise of said shaft for the purpose of avoiding jamming of its finger |89 should the carriage be released when said finger, while engaged in setting one of the stops |00 rearwardly, is still between two adjacent ones of said stops |00. For this purpose, the yoke |80 is yieldably held, by a spring |30, in its normal position against the side of the housing |03. The pin |84 is freely articulated to the arm |83 of the stop-setting-blade |82, in order to permit the described endwise movement of said yoke. An important object attained by the described means for stop-setting is to cause the finger |89, while setting a stop |00, to move squarely toward the latter, so as to avoid the liability of striking adjacent stops, and at the same time to provide for the described jam-avoiding lateral movement of said finger.

The shaft |31 has fastened thereto a universal bar |9| operable by any one of the denominational blades |03, for the purpose of releasing the carriage from the escapement-wheel 81. The universal bar |9| has an arm |02, which, in effect, forms an arm of said shaft |01. Each denominational blade |53 has a forwardly-reaching iinger |93 to engage the universal bar |9|. The carriage-releasing arm |02 of the universal bar |9| is connected by a link |04 which ranges downwardly and forwardly for articulation with a slot |95 of a dog-releasing lever |00, pivoted to the bracket 08 which mounts the dog-rocker 00. At its lower end portion, the link |94 is guided in proper direction by passing between the rod |10 and another rod |98 which supports an anchorpiece |99, to which are attached springs 200 which serve tc restore the blades |53, |18 and |82. The upper end of the stop-setting blade |82 may be retained against lateral displacement by playing in a slot 20| afforded by the universal bar 9|. A spring |91 applied to the dog-releasing lever |96 urges the latter and the rest of the universal-bar train to normal, Figure 2 position.

The stop-restoring blade may also have a cam 203 which is operative to restore all the set stops |00 by a run of the carriage when said stoprestoring blade |10 is maintained in forwardlyprojected position by its key-lever |19.

Figure 4 is a diagram representing modication of the tabulating mechanism when the latter is to be used only for column-tabulating. In this case only one stop-blade, |50, is employed, and this one blade is in the position occupied by the lowest denomination-blade of the denominational set, in order to be properly co-operative with the stop-restoring blade |15, it being understood that, when a stop |00 is to be restored, the carriage is tabulated to said column-stop blade |59. The column-tabulating key may be in the form of a bar 200, disposed as shown at Figure fl, between the stop-clearing and stop-setting keys |80, 202. Said tabulating-key bar 204 may be mounted upon key-levers 205 which may be yoked together, as indicated in Figure 4, by a fulcrum-sleeve 200, a rivet 201 and a rod 203.

The typing key-levers 13 normally abut a cushion-stop 209 mounted on a comb-plate 2H! formed and mounted as shown in Figure 2 to guide the stems l0| of the tabulating key-levers. Said stems |0| may have stroke-limiting ears 2|! striking a cushion-stop 2|2. Normally the tabulating key-levers seat against another cushion-stop 2 i3, the stops 2 |2, 2 I2 being mounted on a plate 2id secured with a comb-plate 2|5 for the typing key-levers 13 to a cross-bar 2|0.

The improvements afford simplicity and the mechanism is eilicient in operation. It will be noted that with the exception of the tabulatingkey levers |82 and the carriage-stops |00, the improved tabulating mechanism, including the stop-setting and stop-clearing devices, and the described liftable, and at the same time forwardly movable, blades, may be assembled as a unit, all mounted in the housing |03, and easily placeable upon, or removable from, the machine.

In Figure 2 it may be seen that the tabulatormechanism housing is adjustable fore and aft as a unit and with the bolster 01, and with the carriage 40, and exact relative positions are maintained between the tabulating stops and counterstop for any adjustment. At said Figure 2 it also can be seen that the denominational keys |52 are fulcrumed upon the main frame structure l5, |58, and that the upper faces of the rear ends of said levers are arranged parallel to the adjustment of the bolster unit 41, |03.

Variations may be resorted to within the scope o-f the invention, and portions of the improvements may be used without others.

Having thus described my invention, I claim:

1. A tabulating mechanism for a typewritercarriage including a plurality of upstanding blades for engaging, by transverse edgewise movement thereof, a stop on said carriage, keylevers for selectively lifting said upstanding blades, and means mounting said blades side by side and acting as blade-guides, said means including a guide extending transversely of the blades and having slots in which one set of edges at the upper ends of said blades are received, said meansalso including a second transverse guide disposed lower than the rst guide and having slots in which a second set of edges of said blades are received, said guide-slots and the blade-edges received therein being inclined, as viewed sidewise of the blades, and the bladeportions between said guides being the portions which engage said carriage-stop, whereby, when a blade is lifted, its stop engaging portion is forced into the path of said carriage-stop and is forced out of said path when said blade is dropped.

2. A tabulating mechanism for a typewritercarriage including a plurality of upstanding blades for engaging, by transverse .edgewise movement thereof, a stop on said carriage, keylevers for selectively lifting said upstanding blades, and means mounting said blades side by side and acting as blade-guides, said means including a guide extending transversely of the blades and having slots in which one set of edges at the upper ends of said blades are received, said means also including a second transverse guide disposed lower than the first guide and having slots in which a second set of edges of said blades are received, said guide-slots and the blade-edges received therein being inclined, as viewed sidewise of the blades, and the bladeportions between said guides being the portions which engage said carriage-stop, whereby, when a blade is lifted, its stop-engaging portion is forced into the path of said carriage-stop and is forced out of said path when said blade is dropped, said lower blade-ends having perforations forming slots whose sides are inclined similarly to said guides, a xed transverse guide-rod extending through said slots, whereby, when the upper part of said blade is forced transversely edgewise, the lower part is also so forced upon lifting or dropping of the blade.

3. A tabulating mechanism for a typewritercarriage including a plurality of upstanding blades for engaging a stop on said carriage by transverse movement, key-levers for selectively lifting said blades, and means mounting said blades side by side and guiding each of. said blades in parallel movement in an oblique direction, edgewise o-f the blade, said means being operative upon the upper and lower portions of each blade to guide said blade portions in unison,

whereby the stop-engaging edge of the blade being lifted, is advanced in parallel movement into the path of the carriage-stop.

4. A tabulating mechanism for a typewritercarriage including a plurality of upstanding blades for engaging a stop on said carriage by transverse movement, key-levers for selectively lifting said blades, and means mounting and guiding said blades side by side for parallel movement of each blade in an oblique direction, edgewise of the blade, whereby the stop-engaging edge of the blade being lifted, is advanced in parallel movement into the path of the carriagestop, and a spring cooperating with said mounting and guiding means to urge the lifted blade out of the path of the carriage-stop upon release of the corresponding key-lever.

5. In a typewriting machine, a tabulating mechanism for a typewriter-carriage, including a plurality of. upstanding blades for engaging a stop on said carriage, an actuator movable in an up-and-down direction for lifting one of said blades by abutting the lower end thereof, and means mounting and guiding said blades side by side for parallel movement of each blade in an oblique direction edgewise of the blade. whereby the actuated blade is advanced in parallel movement into the path of the carriage-stop, said blade actuator having sliding engagement with a corresponding blade to facilitate unitary removal of the tabulating mechanism from the typewriter, said mounting and guiding means in-l cluding a support detachable from the machine.

6. A tabulating mechanism comprising a housing having spaced inclined slots in its top and a slotted cross bar, and a pin extending transversely near the bottom; and a plurality of blades spaced in said housing by their tops extending in the inclined slots of the housing top and other portions extending in the slots of the cross bar, the blades being slotted to receive the transversely extending pin and translate, in cooperation with the housing slots, an upward thrust on any blade into an upward and forward movement thereof.

WILLIAM F. HELMOND. 

